HomeMy WebLinkAbout5/19/2015 - RegularMINUTES OF A REGULAR MEETING OF VINTON TOWN COUNCIL HELD AT 6-00 P.
ON TUESDAY, MAY 19, 2015, IN THE COUNCIL CHAMBERS OF THE VINTO
MUNICIPAL BUILDING LOCATED AT 311 SOUTH POLLARD STREET, VINT01
UIRGINIA
MEMBERS PRESENT: Bradley E. Grose, Mayor
Matthew S. Hare, Vice Mayor
1. Douglas Adams, Jr.
William W. Nance
Sabrina M. Weeks
STAFF PRESENT: Christopher S. Lawrence, Town Manager
Theresa Fontana, Town Attorney
Susan N. Johnson, Town Clerk
Ryan Spitzer, Assistant Town Manager
Ben Cook, Police Chief
Donna Collins, Human Resources Specialist
Barry Thompson, Finance Director/Treasurer
Mary Beth Layman, Special Programs Director
Gary Woodson, Public Works Director
Joey Hiner, Public Works Assistant Director
Mark Vaught, Lieutenant, Police Department
The Mayor called the work session to order
p.m. for further review and discussion of the proposed
FY2015-2016 budget. The Town Manager first
commented that the one remaining issue from the last
work session was for Council to evaluate keeping the
pool open beyond this summer and how to fund
The pool budget as recommended is $45,000 which
funds the pool for this upcoming summer and then closes
it in August. This represents a $35,000 reduction in the
total pool budget. The direction received from Council
was to increase the fees to bring in a potential increase of
$8,000 in new revenue. We also looked at the War
Memorial budget to see if there were some funds there
that can be shifted to the pool budget, To keep what we
have today, there is approximately $25,000 that we can
shift from the War Memorial, part from salaries and
benefits and the other from contract services, advertising
o.nd electrical services.
The Town Manager next commented that the allocation of
Mary Beth Layman's salary to the pool budget is $8,428
which will be allocated somewhere else, The water
expenses to fill the pool and maintain water levels are
approximately $3,000. Concession sales pay for a part-
time employee plus make a profit which we are able to
share with the volunteer groups at the churches.
Outside of cutting items that have already been
discussed such as RVTV, something in the Police
Department or the buses, the only other place that does
not cut a service is the paving budget, We increased
paving $75,000 this coming year over our current year.
To do this increase we recommended cuts throughout the
budget to focus on a priority of roads. We could move
the money from paving to do this one-time maintenance
on the pool or from fund balance. However, we have
structured the budget to not use fund balance except for
some capital project equipment replacement.
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he asked if Council realized how much the Town spends
on getting our information out. It is not just RVTV, but we
have gone into another contract with the Chamber to give
them more money to get our message out and we pay for
at least three websites, the Town's, the War Memorial's
and the Police Department's. Council Member Adams
commented that we should look at those costs to see if
we can bring them together to send out the message and
get it out effectively. A lot of organizations that he
belongs to are going away from websites to very limited
websites and using Facebook and other social media.
The Town Manager responded that the Police
Department's website, which is linked through ours, costs
nothing virtually except to have the registered domain.
On the other side, the War Memorial website costs
$1,000's and if one thing needs to be changed or
updated, they have to call the company. We did not
have Civic Plus that we have today when the War
Memorial website was created. There would be upfront
costs to create a new website and shift it over to Civic
Plus, but then it gets incorporated into the umbrella of our
total website. We can look at this to see what the savings
would be.
The Mayor next commented that in order to balance the
budget now, we still need to come up with $10,000 * I
Another $5,000 would be needed to pay for the paint to
repaint the pool interior. Ms. Layman commented that
the paint would cost from $7-8,000, The Mayor next
commented that he does not think we could say our
budget is so accurate that there is not $5,000 in it. There
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as snow removal expense. As a matter of procedure, he
would be in favor of taking $5,000 out of paving with the
hope that some other items that are variables throughout
the year could be used to replace that amount.
Vice Mayor Hare commented that Mr. Woodson will go
out to bid for paving with whatever amount we say we
want to spend. With the $60,000 from the increased tax
rate that we put in paving, we should not forget that we
are still over $100,000 less than what we need to stop
failing behind. The Town Manager commented that he
can find $5,000, but philosophically does Council want to
keep the pool or not is the question.
Vice Mayor Hare commented that we are delaying the
inevitable. We have a serious capital needs issue in this
Town and are getting closer to where we are going to
have to replace huge pieces of equipment that cost
millions of dollars with no way to do it. The only people
who can make that decision sit right up here. Our staff will
keep giving us budgets based on the services we tell
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or not. The focus will always be are we going to keep
the pool this year if we do not make a decision.
The Mayor commented that going back and forth on this
issue does a lot of damage. What makes it difficult is
that none of us really want to close the pool, but the point
is the decision needs to be made. He has been a
proponent to keep the pool open, but there are a lot of
things that the Town needs. He is afraid what is going to
happen next year is that we are going to have to close
the pool whether we like it or not.
Council Member Nance commented that even when he
moves, he is going to have a Vinton address. So until
then he is going to make the best decisions and give the
best opinions that he can and he probably will make them
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he cares so much about this community, He does not
want the pool to close, but this Town has to prioritize
where its future is and he does not think it is with a 65
plus year old pool. He does not want to push that off to
2-nother Council member; he wants to make the tough
fecision.
Council Member Weeks commented that Vice Mayor
Hare told her recently that she should look at the Town
budget just like she looks at her own. Sometimes we try
to make everyone happy, but unfortunately we are in a
position where we cannot do that, She does not want to
see the pool close and wishes we did not have any of this
to,Oeal with,
The Mayor commented that personally, there is a part of
him that realizes it is not going to get any cheaper to
maintain the pool and we have to keep in mind that staff
did recommend the closure of the pool. The Town
Manager responded that it was his recommendation to
close the pool because they have gone through a priority
list and a lot of different scenarios. They are trying to
continue to invest in recreation that adds value to
tomorrow in terms of people being attracted to a
community with greenway trails and high quality
recreation. We have very good recreation in our
community all around us, whether through Roanoke
County Parks and Rec, the Schools or the parks in Town.
Vice Mayor Hare commented that the $25,000 the Town
Manager has been able to identify plus the additional
$5,000 needs to be kept to deal with the closure of the
pool. The Town Manager responded that the cuts he
identified are cuts that he feels can be sustained.
Council Member Adams commented that agreed with
what everyone else has said with regard to the pool. The
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money is getting tight, and he wants to make sure the Consensus of Council to close the
Town survives. At the end of the day, we do not have a swimming pool after the 2015
choice and we cannot just keep putting it off. summer season
The work session ended at 7:00 p.m. Council
recessed for a ten minute break.
The Mayor called the regular meeting to order at 7:10 Roll call
p.m. The Town Clerk called the roll with Council Member
Adams, Council Member Nance, Council Member Weeks,
Vice Mayor Hare and Mayor Grose present.
Council Member Nance made a motion to amend the
agenda to include a Closed Session at the end of the
meeting; the motion was seconded by Council Member
Adams and carried by the following roll call vote, with all
members voting: Vote 5-0; Yeas (5) — Adams, Nance,
Weeks, Hare, Grose; Nays (0) - None. The Mayor
announced that the Closed Session was in reference to a
real estq-te matter.
After a Moment of Silence, Council Member Weeks led
the Pledge of Allegiance to the U.S. Flag.
Under upcoming community events/announcements,
Council Member Weeks commented on the success of
the Wine and Food Festival this past weekend. The
Mingle at the Market Concert Series will start on June 13th
and be sure and check the Town calendar for upcoming
Senior events. Also, there will be a dedication ceremony
at the Vinton Fire House on Thursday, June e, at 11:00
a.m., rain or shine.
FiApproved amending the agenda
to include a Closed Session at the
end of the meeting
Council Member Adams made a motion to approve the
Consent Agenda as presented; the motion was seconded Approved minutes for the Speci
by Council Member Nance and carried by the following Budget Work Session of April I
vote, with all members voting: Vote 5-0; Yeas (5) — Adams, 2015 and the regular meeting
Nance, Weeks, Hare, Grose; Nays (0) - None. April 21, 2015 1
Under awards, recognitions and presentations, the
first item was a Proclamation for GBS and CIDP
Awareness Month, which was read by Vice Mayor Hare.
Rick Forney, the liaison for the local area chapter, who
has been diagnosed with the illness, expressed thanks to
Council and made brief comments, After comments from
Council, the Proclamation was presented to Mr. Forney.
The next recognition was a Proclamation for Click It
*r Ticket, Council Member Adams read the Proclamation
and presented it to Lieutenant Mark Vaught.
Council Member Nance read two Memos from Chief
Cook naming Detective Todd Bailey and Officer Michael
Caldwell as Officers of the month for April.
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The next item on the agenda was to consider public'
comments regarding the proposed FY2015-2016 Town of
Vinton Budget. The Mayor opened the Public Hearing at Public hearing opened at 7:30
7:30 p.m. I P.m
The Town Manager began by commenting that the
presentation he will be making has been reviewed in
several prior Council meetings. After commenting on the
budget priorities, the proposed budget totals $12,658,190
made up of $9,040,040 in the General Fund and
$3,618,150 in the Water and Sewer Fund.
In the General Fund which is made up of taxes and fees
collected, Council earlier approved a real estate tax
increase of $0.04 for a total rate of $0.07. The Personal
Property and Machinery and Tools tax remained the
same and we maintained the same cigarette tax rate of
$0.25. Revenues are from a very diverse stream, Our
expenditures are spread out with Public Safety and Public
Works being the predominate areas. The Community
Development budget has a large number of grants in it for
sidewalks, trails and the downtown revitalization,
Our fixed expenses of fuel and electricity remain the
same. We continue to invest with Roanoke County for
the purchase of the property for the library and our
downtown revitalization is continuing to move forward
with probably a January 2016 completion of the final
Farmers' Market project, We have Community
Organization contributions as well as our Joint Local
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This year the health insurance premiums will have no
increase, but we always expect at least a 10% increase
and will probably have to deal with even more the next
fiscal year, We continue to invest in our employees and
the new VRS hybrid plan was implemented in January of
2014. The CIP Program is made up of gateway
enhancements of $5,000; replacement of Medic 23 (in
partnership with Roanoke County and the State) of
$45,000; replacement of a zero -turn lawnmower of
$7,500 and the Walnut Avenue Corridor Improvement
Project (our continued partnership with VDOT) of $4,000.
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